WEST WING MINDMELD on contraceptive compromise, to be announced today: “It is a political issue to be dealt with in the near term, yes. But in terms of the people that will decide this election next November? Having this issue -- and generally women’s health and reproductive issues in the bloodstream -- could not be more useful. They will all double down at CPAC today. The dials on these speeches with swing women would be close to zero. Which is a great day for the home team.”

--ABC’s Jake Tapper: “White House to Announce ‘Accommodation’ for Religious Organizations on Contraception Rule … The move, based on state models, will almost certainly not satisfy bishops and other religious leaders since it will preserve the goal of women employees having their birth control fully covered by health insurance. Sources say it will be respectful of religious beliefs but will not back off from that goal, which many religious leaders oppose since birth control is in violation of their religious beliefs.

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“White House officials have discussed the state law in Hawaii, where religious groups are allowed to opt out of coverage that includes birth control, as long as employees are given information whether such coverage can be obtained. … This announcement would not go that far. Sources say it will involve health insurance companies helping to provide the coverage, since it’s actually cheaper for these companies to offer the coverage than to not do so, because of unwanted pregnancies and resulting complications.”

--Carrie Budoff Brown: "The ... compromise ... isn’t likely to go far enough to appease the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The conference wants the administration to rescind not just the narrow religious exemption but the underlying rule requiring private employers to offer contraceptive coverage as part of their employee benefit plans — a position that leaves little room for compromise with the president. White House officials have said the president will not back away from the broader goal of expanding access to birth control as part of the 2010 health care law."

BEHIND THE CURTAIN -- “Bishop checkmates Obama,” by Glenn Thrush and Carrie Budoff Brown: “On Jan. 20, … Obama approved the mandate … [T]he debate over birth control … has opened a dangerous electoral schism for Democrats, pitting Obama’s base of female supporters against the church and [the] GOP presidential field … But it has also exposed surprisingly acute ideological, religious and gender divisions within a White House that prides itself on pulling together as a cohesive unit after a major decision …

" Nancy-Ann DeParle, who helped quarterback the passage of the Affordable Care Act, opposed the policy. She argued that it would seriously undermine Catholic leaders who bucked the bishops by supporting the bill … He was also encouraged by the endorsement of senior adviser David Plouffe, … who reportedly reviewed private polling data and concluded that the vast majority of Catholic voters, who don’t adhere to the church’s dictates on birth control anyway, wouldn’t punish Obama for his decision. …

“Pete Rouse, counselor to the president and a supporter of the mandate, guided pro-choice activists … to downplay the decision, warning them against an instant backlash if they were seen ‘dancing in the end zone’ … (White House officials say Rouse wasn’t imposing a gag order, just offering a bit of prudent messaging advice.) … White House officials are prevailing upon women’s groups to defend the decision, while Biden and others are publicly hinting at a yet-to-be articulated compromise that will silence the opposition. On Thursday, Biden, citing a ‘lot of misunderstanding’ about the rule, told a Cincinnati radio station that he is ‘determined to see that this gets worked out, and I believe we can work it out.’” http://politi.co/yMApp4

THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN marks the fifth anniversary of the 2007 announcement speech at the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill., with a jaunty video, “The Story of Us: Five Years Ago Today.” The video ends with a clip of The President saying, “There’s so much more to do,” and an altar call: “You should be with us in 2012.” YouTubehttp://bit.ly/zWeNFO

--WHAT HE SAID: “Praise and honor to God for bringing us together today. Thank you so much. I am so grateful to see all of you. Let me begin by saying thanks to all of you who've traveled, from far and wide, to brave the cold today. I'm fired up. … We all made this journey for a reason. It's humbling to see a crowd like this, but in my heart I know you didn't come here just for me. No, you came here because you believe in what this country can be. In the face of war, you believe there can be peace. In the face of despair, you believe there can be hope. In the face of a politics that's shut you out, that's told you to settle, that's divided us for too long, you believe that we can be one people, reaching for what's possible, building that more perfect union. …

“Now listen, I recognize there is a certain presumptuousness — a certain audacity — to this announcement. I know I haven't spent a lot of time learning the ways of Washington. But I've been there long enough to know that the ways of Washington must change. …[T]he life of a tall, gangly, self-made Springfield lawyer … tells us that there is power in hope. … That is why I'm in this race. Not just to hold an office, but to gather with you to transform a nation. …

“And if you will join with me in this improbable quest, if you feel destiny calling, and see as I see, a future of endless possibility stretching before us; … then I am ready to take up the cause, and march with you, and work with you. Today, together, we can finish the work that needs to be done, and usher in a new birth of freedom on this Earth. Thank you very much everybody — let's get to work.” Transcripthttp://bit.ly/zLqw1R

--RNC is out with a video, “Five Years Later,” and a four-page research piece, “Litany Of Obama Failed Promises From Five Years Ago In Springfield.” YouTube http://bit.ly/wqhydi ... PDFhttp://bit.ly/AANnWo

FIRST LADY’s message for African American History Month, which has the theme, “Black Women in American Culture and History”: “[Y]ou don’t have to be in a history book to make a contribution to our country. So we’re also celebrating the women we call mom or grandma … our aunts, our best friends -- all those women who live each day with a spirit that is uniquely their own, and who continue to write our country’s story every single day. So this month, as we recall all those whose shoulders we stand upon, let’s recommit to living up to their example. Let’s honor them by reinvesting in those around us.” YouTube http://bit.ly/yvAyzJ

NOAM SCHEIBER’s forthcoming book, “the Escape Arti$ts: How Obama’s Team Fumbled the Recovery,” out from Feb. 28 (Simon & Schuster, 351 pp.), is adapted in the forthcoming issue of The New Republic as “Obama’s Worst Year: The inside story of his brush with political disaster”: “BY JANUARY 2011, two months after Democrats suffered a rout in the congressional midterm elections, the West Wing … faced a critical choice between engaging with Republicans and playing partisan hardball. Should they tackle the trillion-dollar deficit, co-opting the anti-government zeal that Republicans had ridden to power? Or should they try to lower the stubbornly high unemployment rate, which had exceeded 9 percent for 20 straight months? The president’s team quickly concluded that the deficit was the higher priority. Bill Daley, a former Commerce secretary and bank executive who had recently taken over as chief of staff, considered the administration so out of touch on the issue of government spending that large cuts could only bring political benefits.

“David Plouffe, who had replaced Axelrod as the president’s top political counselor, thought Obama needed to establish himself as a budget-cutter to regain credibility with voters. ‘Plouffe specifically said, “We’re going to need a period of ugliness”—he meant with the left—“so that people in the center understand that we’re not wasting their tax dollars,”’ recalls a former administration official … (The White House says Plouffe believed these efforts would help the administration protect core investments in technology, infrastructure, and education.) The decision to focus on the deficit in 2011 was defensible at the time. It wasn’t until much later that the economy’s weakness became clear. …

“For voters contemplating whether he deserves a second term, the question is less and less one of policy or even worldview than of basic disposition. Throughout his political career, Obama has displayed an uncanny knack for responding to existential threats. He sharpened his message against Hillary Clinton in late November 2007, just in time to salvage the Iowa caucuses and block her coronation. He condemned his longtime pastor, Jeremiah Wright, just before Wright’s racialist comments could doom his presidential hopes. Once in office, Obama led two last-minute counteroffensives to save health care reform. But, in every case, the adjustments didn’t come until the crisis was already at hand. His initial approach was too passive and too accommodating, and he stuck with it far too long. Given the booby traps that await the next president—Iranian nukes, global financial turmoil—this habit seems dangerously risky. Sooner or later, Obama may encounter a crisis that can’t be reversed at the eleventh hour. Is Obama’s newfound boldness on the economy yet another last-minute course-correction? Or has he finally learned a deeper lesson?” http://bit.ly/xJMEAn

** A message from the U.S. Chamber’s FreeEnterprise.com: Check out the latest from the Chamber’s Chief Economist Marty Regalia, Ph.D. His column cuts through the Washington rhetoric and lays out the facts about jobs numbers, income inequality, and tax burdens http://bit.ly/wh5vl8. Brought to you by FreeEnterprise.com, your home for free market news and ideas. **

HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER ERIC CANTOR will use a 4 p.m. speech to the Washington and Lee University Mock Convention in Lexington, Va., to unveil a conservative response to the President's “fair shot”/ “built to last”/attack-Congress themes, and to launch a new policy: “the 20% Tax Cut for Small Businesses in America”: “Free, flourishing economies are not ‘built to last’ … Exceptional economies are ‘built to grow’ … Far from being ‘built to last,’ a prosperous economy is built to evolve, adapt, even mutate into previously unimagined forms … If an economy were ‘built to last,’ we'd still be relying on candles for illumination, relying on horses for transportation and relying on quill pens for written communication. That's not an economy built to last, but built to come in last. …

“We must encourage more entrepreneurs to start small businesses and provide the environment so risk takers will again take risks. … And our efforts should be to create an environment to foster job creation. That is why I propose a 20% small business tax cut to help the backbone of our economy – American small business people. …

“[T]he president's concept of a ‘fair shot’ and mine differ. It's not a fair shot when Democrats and the president keep shooting down policies aimed at making the American economy and American society exceptional. … Republicans in the House have done our part. We passed a budget to pay down debt and stimulate the economy, but the president has rejected that and pilloried Republicans as the party that favors the rich. What is rich is the president's recent adaptation of language many Republicans have been using for the last three years, regarding the challenges we all face.”

DETAILS ON CANTOR’S “Small Business Tax Relief: Small businesses (those employing less than 500 individuals) employ about half of all Americans, yet they can be subject to tax rates that siphon away one-third or more of their income. … Small Businesses (those employing 500 or fewer) would be allowed to exclude 20% of their income from taxes irrespective of whether or not they pay under the individual or the corporate tax code. … [A] small business … under current law would pay a 30% federal tax on $100 of income, resulting in a $30 tax bill. Under the House Republican proposal, the small business would be able to exclude 20% of their income from tax (20% of $100 = $20). The small business would then pay the same 30% tax on the remaining $80, resulting in a $24 tax bill. Under the House Republican proposal, the small business immediately saved $6 in federal taxes.”

NEWT GINGRICH at CPAC “Will Unveil Plans to Reform Government and Get Americans Working Again”: “Getting America again will require bold thinking and bold solutions. Many of these new approaches will be opposed by the establishment in both parties. … In a Gingrich administration, we will replace the EPA with a new collaborative and economically rational Environmental Solutions Agency … we will create a new 21st century Food and Drug Administration with a new mission that is pro-science and pro-patient … replace the 130-year-old civil service bureaucrat model with modern management … replace the failed NASA bureaucracy with a new ‘Wright Brothers’ model of free enterprise. … I will propose and work with Congress to pass an optional 15% flat tax. … We will match the Chinese by setting our capital gains rate at zero and lower our corporate income tax rate to 12.5%.”

CECI CONNOLLY has been named managing director of the PwC Health Research Institute, the in-house organization of PricewaterhouseCooper’s PwC Health Industries, providing research, insight and analysis on health-care trends. Connolly joins PwC on Monday from the McKinsey Center for Health Reform, where she had been a senior advisor. She is co-author of “Landmark: The Inside Story of America's New Health Care Law and What It Means for Us All.” Kelly Barnes, U.S. health industries practice leader for PwC, said: “Few people have had as good a vantage point on the change roiling the health industries as Ceci Connolly, first as a journalist and then as an adviser to the industry.”

STATE VISIT: The Green Bay Packers’ Greg Jennings – a Kalamazoo native -- spent yesterday all over Washington, visiting House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Sen. John Thune to talk about football and The Greg Jennings Foundation, which works with young people in Michigan and Wisconsin and is expanding its efforts this summer. The Packer All-Pro also made stops at POLITICO (where everyone was wowed by his humility, as he shook hands and took photos throughout the newsroom), Sirius XM, ESPN and USA Today, building relationships and talking philanthropy. At 11 a.m., he will join Paul Tagliabue, Dhani Jones and others on a panel created by USAID to discuss the work of athletes in bettering the lives of others and an upcoming trip to Africa with the Starkey Hearing Aid Foundation and USAID.

GOP 2012, from Kevin Robillard (@PoliticoKevin):

ROMNEY: WSJ A4, “Romney Matches Obama in Stance on Outside Groups,” by Brody Mullins and Peter Nicholas: “Top Romney aides planned to send an email to campaign staff late Thursday saying that new campaign-finance rules permit campaign officials and surrogates to help raise money for the pro-Romney group, Restore Our Future. "President Obama's decision opens a new chapter in this campaign, and we will not play by different rules," Romney campaign manager Matt Rhoades said in the email, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.” http://on.wsj.com/yWzqLF

--N.Y. Times A14, “Romney Takes Conservative Leaders’ Questions in Bid to ‘Reconnect,’” by Michael D. Shear and Erik Eckholm: “About three dozen evangelical organizers, conservative writers and Tea Party activists were in the room at the Marriott Wardman Park, and the largely friendly group politely grilled him over nuts and soda about his positions on social issues and pressed him on his surprising losses during Tuesday’s presidential contests. Not in attendance: many of those in the conservative movement who have questioned Mr. Romney’s commitment to their causes. … Several said Thursday that they had been invited, but declined. Others said Mr. Romney’s campaign had not reached out to them this week.” http://nyti.ms/ACzhlK

-- “Romney to return to the Massachusetts message at CPAC,” by Maggie Haberman: “[In an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity,] [h]e said he plans to use a portion of the speech to focus on something he rarely brings up on the campaign trail - his record as governor of Massachusetts. He'll spend his time ‘first describing challenge that we face as a nation and the conservative choice that has to be brought forward,’ Romney said, but then he'll ‘describe my record as governor. ..some of those things get hidden over time and people forget.’”

SANTORUM, when asked by CNN’s John King about moving women into combat roles: “I think that can be a very compromising situation, where people naturally may do things that may not be in the interests of the mission because of other types of emotions that are involved. And I think that's probably - you know, it already happens, of course, with the camaraderie of men in combat. But I think it would be even more unique if women were in combat. I think that's probably not in the best interests of men, women or the mission.” YouTube: http://youtu.be/CWAR7FeY4pA

--Reuters, “Loose-talking Santorum donor Friess to make star turn in DC,” by Samuel P. Jacobs: “Foster Friess, the wealthy investor who is fueling Rick Santorum's presidential campaign, is enjoying his new-found fame. ‘I am. You know why? I have a huge ego,’ Friess joked in an interview with Reuters. … On Friday morning, the 71-year-old will formally introduce Santorum at an annual CPAC convention of thousands of conservatives.” http://reut.rs/wju9MN

GINGRICH: Bloomberg, “Gingrich Seeks to Ease Fundraising Woes as Las Vegas Checks Slowing Down,” by Julie Bykowicz: “For now, the Adelsons don’t plan to deliver another big check to float Gingrich’s campaign, according to a person familiar with their deliberations. … Winning Our Future is shifting its focus to ‘grassroots fundraising’ of amounts between $2,500 and seven figures, Rick Tyler, the committee’s senior adviser, said in an interview yesterday.” http://bloom.bg/ylW2oV

THE PRESIDENT’S DAY: “In the morning, the President and the Vice President will receive the Presidential Daily Briefing in the Oval Office. This meeting is closed press. Later in the morning, the President will sign H.R. 3801, the Ultralight Aircraft Smuggling Prevention Act of 2012. This bill is the last piece of legislation that former Representative Gabrielle Giffords sponsored and voted on in the U.S. House of Representatives. The President will be joined in the Oval Office by the Vice President, former Representative Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly. There will be a stills only pool spray of the bill signing. In the afternoon, the President will attend a campaign event [at a hotel] in Washington.”

--THE V.P.’S DAY: “In the morning, the Vice President will attend the Presidential Daily Briefing in the Oval Office. Later in the morning, the Vice President will attend the President’s signing ceremony for H.R. 3801, the Ultralight Aircraft Smuggling Prevention Act of 2012. The President and Vice President will be joined in the Oval Office by former Representative Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly.”

TECHWATCH -- N.Y. Times B5, “An ‘Entertainment Device’ Is Expected From Google,” by David Streitfeld and Nicole Perlroth: “The device, which exists as a prototype and will eventually be sold as a branded item to consumers, is the company’s most significant venture into hardware. While the initial purpose of the device will be for streaming music, the eventual use could be much wider. … The entertainment device has been in the works for more than a year, before Google made a $12.5 billion deal to buy the handset maker Motorola Mobility, the most likely manufacturer of the device. That acquisition is likely to close next week.” http://nyti.ms/xFHpiL

DESSERT -- Nancy Pelosi’s new web ad promotes the DISCLOSE Act by asking to “Stop Colbert”: “Stephen Colbert used to be my friend. I even signed the poor baby’s cast when he hurt his hand. But since the day he started his Super PAC, taking secret money from special interests, he’s been out of control, even using his Super PAC money to attack my friend, Newt Gingrich. And if that weren’t enough, I hear he doesn’t even like kittens. Colbert must be stopped. I’m Nancy Pelosi, and I support this ad because Americans deserve a better tomorrow today.” http://youtu.be/lLH0fT3mbe0

** A message from the U.S. Chamber’s FreeEnterprise.com: Check out the latest from the Chamber’s Chief Economist Marty Regalia, Ph.D. His column cuts through the Washington rhetoric and lays out the facts about jobs numbers, income inequality, and tax burdens http://bit.ly/wh5vl8. Brought to you by FreeEnterprise.com, your home for free market news and ideas. **

****** A message from UnitedHealth Group: What does it take to create a modern, high-performing, simpler health care system? Expanding access to care through proven state-based coverage and employer-sponsored insurance. Making health care more affordable with consumer-directed care and value-based payments. Supporting and modernizing Medicare to meet the complex health challenges of America’s seniors. And reinvesting in health to support research and innovation. Learn more about these ideas at http://www.unitedhealthgroup.com ******

Authors:

About The Author

Mike Allen is the chief White House correspondent for POLITICO. He comes to us from Time magazine where he was their White House correspondent. Prior to that, Allen spent six years at The Washington Post, where he covered President Bush's first term, Capitol Hill, campaign finance, and the Bush, Gore and Bradley campaigns of 2000. Before turning to national politics, he covered schools and local governments in rural counties outside Fredericksburg, Va., for The Free Lance-Star, then wrote about Doug Wilder, Oliver North, Chuck Robb and the Bobbitts for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, where he nurtured police sources on overnight ride-alongs through housing projects. Allen also covered Mayor Giuliani, the Connecticut statehouse and the wacky rich of Greenwich for The New York Times. Before moving to The Times, he did stints in the Richmond and Alexandria bureaus of The Washington Post. Allen grew up in Orange County, Calif., and has a B.A. from Washington and Lee University, where he majored in politics and journalism.